A Florida judge resigned last week in the wake of a state judicial ethics investigation launched after he accepted baseball tickets from a law firm that was litigating a slip-and-fall case before him. The outcome for the judge seems like a foregone conclusion, but it also is a timely reminder for lawyers about the ethics rules governing their interactions with judges.
Client defames lawyer on review site — court upholds $350,000 in punitive damages
A Florida appeals court has affirmed $350,000 in punitive damages awarded to a lawyer who claimed that a former client defamed her in on-line reviews. Some courts have turned back claims based on internet reviews. But in Blake v. Ann-Marie Giustibelli, P.A., the court said there was no free-speech shield for the former client’s false statements on various internet review sites.
Documenting who you do — and don’t — represent is key to avoiding malpractice trap
We’ve blogged about this before, but if you need any more reasons to be sure that you document who your client is and is not, see the Oregon court of appeals opinion in Lahn v. Vaisbort.
“I represent only your brother”
In Lahn, the lawyer had represented the plaintiff, her brother and
Don’t bcc your client on e-mails to opposing counsel, NY state bar advises
What’s ethical may nonetheless not be a best practice — timely advice from the ethics committee of the New York State Bar Association, which weighed in recently with an ethics opinion on the practice of blind copying your client on e-mails you send to opposing counsel.
The inquiry to the NYSBA’s Committee on Professional Ethics
Avvo misappropriated identity for commercial use, says lawyer in class action
Lawyer-rating site Avvo is violating a state statute barring unauthorized use of “an individual’s identity for commercial purposes,” an Illinois lawyer has charged in a putative class-action complaint filed last week in the chancery division of Cook County Circuit Court.
Fee- based marketing plan
The gist of the complaint is that without any authorization or
60 Minutes segment shows ethics issues in client representation
The set-up: Potential client calls you on the phone. He says he is representing a government minister from a mineral-rich West African nation — he won’t say which one. But his (unnamed) principal needs legal help in order to move millions of dollars into the U.S. — consisting of what the representative candidly describes as
“Good … luck sweetie” letter, unauthorized practice, draw discipline complaint
Be aware of your jurisdiction’s limits on what a “retired” lawyer can and cannot do, and obey them — or risk being tagged for the unauthorized practice of law. And, oh yeah — communicate politely. That’s a dual lesson a lawyer in Illinois may be about to learn, according to a disciplinary complaint filed in
All legal ethics advice is not equal: take these steps to protect yourself
What should you do when you have a thorny legal ethics problem that comes up in the course of representing a client? The answer is not “Call Ghostbusters.” There are a variety of ways to get ethics advice, and some could be better than others in putting you in the best position in case someone
Lawyer tries advice-of-counsel defense in disciplinary case; didn’t disclose client’s death
Here’s an update on a case we reported on last year, where a lawyer agreed to a settlement on behalf of his plaintiff client — who happened to already be dead at the time. The court of appeals in the Illinois case, Robison v. Orthotic & Prosthetic Lab, (predictably) tossed out the settlement based
Pro se parties who are sort of not — can you communicate with them?
We’ve mentioned before that some courts look with disfavor on lawyers helping pro se litigants by ghostwriting briefs for them to file as their own. Some opinions discussing the issue frame the conduct as lawyer deceit, as misrepresentation, or even as potential contempt of court. In a related twist, the ABA ethics committee has recently